Quick Thoughts On The USMNT 2-0 Win Over Mexico

The United States defeated Mexico 2-0 in a cash grab international friendly in San Antonio Wednesday night. Here a few thoughts on the game in no particular order.

Can we please stop with this “Dos A Cero” crap for a meaningless friendly. I hate the fact that the fans are saying it, the fact that US Soccer is using it and promoting it, and the fact that the players are using it. For the players I sorta understand it since for most of them this will be their only chance to play in a 2-0 win over Mexico, but for everyone else just stop. The ‘mythical Dos A Cero’ applies to World Cup Qualifiers played in Columbus and that one time we played Mexico in the actual World Cup. That’s it. Stop attaching it to the friendlies because it doesn’t apply to those. Do I need to bring up the 2-2 draw last year? Or the 1-1 draw in 2011? Or even the worse the 4-2 shellacking Mexico gave us in the 2011 Gold Cup Final? All those games were played on home soil and none of them ended 2-0 to the USA, so let’s keep it to the WCQ’s please.

Good for Jordan Morris scoring his first goal for the US. The kid has been called into USMNT camp a few times now, likely after standing out in the USMNT’s pre-World Cup scrimmage vs. Stanford, but hasn’t really been given a shot. I’ve been saying Klinsmann keeps bringing these kids in and he should actually start them and let them play to see what they could do. Well he gave Morris that shot and it paid off big time. While we shouldn’t throw lefty expectations onto this kid and simply let his development occur naturally and out of the spotlight, I’d like to see him on the Gold Cup roster, especially in Wondo’s spot.

On the complete opposite note, what the hell are we doing with Julian Green? We call the kid into every camp no matter where it’s being held, whether it be in Europe or the United States and then he never plays. Similar to Morris I was begging before the game for Klinsmann to let him start a game and actually see what he can do. He comes on late in every friendly along with all a bunch of substitutes and that’s not a good barometer. Let him play with the regulars like Bradley, the one time he did he scored his only goal for us.

I was very surprised to see DeAndre Yedlin not only get the call for this game but play 90 minutes for us. Has nothing to do with Yedlin, but with Kyle Walker going down I’m shocked Tottenham let Yedlin come over. Yedlin made his Premier League debut last week and again, with Walker being hurt the chances of Spurs needing and using Yedlin are much higher. Yedlin didn’t play much in the previous two friendlies so Spurs may have thought it would be more of the same this time and I’m sure they were just thrilled to see him go the full 90.

It was a good outing for the three man midfield of Michael Bradley, Kyle Beckerman, and Mix Diskerud. Diskerud has a big future with the team and right now Klinsmann is still trying to find the right role for him. Beckerman is still the best holding midfielder the US has, so I expect him to be a fixture in the lineup of the Gold Cup. Hopefully they find a way to work Diskerud in there, but he’ll be competing with the likes of Fabian Johnson, Ale Bedoya, and Gyasi Zardes.

Getting a 2-0 win vs. rival Mexico is always nice, especially with the way the meaningless results have been going lately but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Beating this Mexico team 2-0 was exactly what should have happened. This Mexico squad had just three players that went to last summer’s World Cup. It was their B and maybe even B- squad. While this wasn’t the US’s A squad either, it was much closer to their A- squad then their B squad. Omar Gonzalez, Kyle Beckerman, and Michael Bradley will all be starters in the Gold Cup, with DeAndre Yedlin, Greg Garza, Mix Diskerud, and Gyasi Zardes in heavy contention to start as well. That’s most of our top defense and midfield playing against Mexico’s reserves, the match should always have been a walk in the park.